Students with Physical Disabilities

Today in class, I had a hard time not taking over and lecturing people on my personal views on physical disabilities. As I have commented before, I spent a memorable two months on crutches and a decent amount of time walking around with a bad limp. For this reason, I often consider myself to be a great expert on physical disabilities, whether or not this is true.

At any rate, there are a lot of things that I have to say for this blog post.

In class, we discussed accommodations for students with physical disabilities. Careful and methodical planning cannot be under-stressed. Here are a few things I would like to build on from what I learnt in class:

Manoeuvrability
Can the student move between the tables and chairs in the classroom?
Are surfaces slippery?
Will surfaces become slippery when wet?
Crutches and rubber wheels get snow caught in them, which can make surfaces more slippery.
What strategies will you put in place?

Travel Time
Will a student need extra travel time or to move to different areas when there is lower traffic?
Will the student need to rest while moving from one place to another?
It is very depressing to make your way somewhere alone because you trailing behind a group travelling at a faster rate than you. Take this into account for travel times. Consider pairing student with a physical disability who travels at a slower rate with another student so that they can move together (at the same pace!) and keep each other company. It sounds like a small thing, but it makes a world of difference.

Carrying Belongings
Will the student be able to carry their own belongings, or will they sometimes need assistance?
Should you designate another student to help?

Sport Participation
What modifications will you consider so that the student can participate in Physical Education class? Please see below for more details on this.

Inclusive Language
We discussed this in class, and I realized it was something that I had never considered before, even though I have experienced this myself. My classmate gave a really great example: compare "Please take a seat." with "Come join us in the circle." If a student is in a wheelchair, the first option is excluding that student.
When I was on crutches, a friend described me to someone else as "The girl with the crutches." This was a little weird and a little hurtful. Suddenly, my (temporary) disability was a descriptor. It made me wonder if that was all people saw me as, and it also made me wonder how my friend would have described me before I had broken my leg.

This summer, I was lucky enough to shadow an occupational therapist for a morning as she went about her rounds. She had a lot of experience working in classroom settings. I was able to talk to her about making accommodations for students with physical disabilities, including making sure that there is an accessible bathroom on site. There are many little details like this one which you don't really think of unless you have a physical disability or have particular training in accommodating physical disabilities. I think that I would want to have a good talk with an occupational therapist (preferably the student's occupational therapist, if they have one) about accommodating a physical disability in order to ensure I was addressing everything.

 I'd also like to mention Emotional Needs, as I mentioned in my last post. When I had a broken leg, I felt a little useless. I needed help to do so much! I couldn't shop for groceries on my own (and believe me, I tried), and I couldn't even carry a bowl of soup from the stove to the kitchen table. My self-esteem  plummeted and I felt guilty that I was so reliant on others.

Moreover, I was often reluctant to ask for help, even if I couldn't manage. In the end, I would end up getting hurt (like the famous time I tried to take out the compost bin by myself on a dark and icy night) and ultimately hurting other people's feelings because I was rejecting their help.

I think it is really important to be aware of the emotional difficulties of a physical disability. I want to be there for my students to confide in. I want to be supportive, but I also want to guide them away from behaviour like the ones I described above. This is especially important for a recently acquired disability, or one which has recently evolved to become more challenging.

In class, we also discussed turning a physical disability into an asset. I love stories like the one of Luca "LazyLegz" Patuelli I'd like to share my favourite here: http://www.ted.com/talks/aimee_mullins_prosthetic_aesthetics.html

This is a Ted talk given my Aimee Mullins, who has two prosthetic legs. In the video, she describes how she has turned what could be interpreted as a physical disability into an advantage. In particular, Mullins talks about wearing a particular pair of prosthetic legs to a party. This particular pair has substantial heels, which make Aimee quite tall.
"That's not fair!" says someone at the party.

Freeze frame! Just in case you didn't catch that, someone at the party is envious of Aimee's prosthetic legs because they are giving her an advantage.

Later on in the video, Aimee describes working with an elementary school class. She discusses making prosthetics with the class, and one student asks, "What if they could make you fly?"

I love Aimee's examples of how to transcend a physical disability and make it into a positive asset. While this may always be possible, I think it is very important to keep this idea in mind. You can choose to be debilitated by a setback, or you can keep going and look for the positives. As an educator, I want to work as hard as I can to accommodate a student as much as I can, both in terms of physical accommodations, and in terms of providing emotional support. Most of all, I refuse to view a physical disability as a "downside." Different abilities have different needs, and it is my job to help all of my students shine either despite their difficulties or because they have harnessed a potential difficulty and turned it into a triumph.